Roses are seen by many as the perfect cut flower. They are now grown and sold in their millions, mostly in Africa and South America, and flown all around the world for use in bouquets on all continents. Over time, the ‘rose’ that is sold as a cut flower has changed almost beyond recognition. To cope with mechanisation, time spent in transit and delay in reaching the end user, the roses that are sold by wholesalers are uniform in appearance and scentless. They are very readily available and reasonably priced.

When I first started growing cut flowers, the advice given by those already in the business in the UK was to avoid growing what a florist can get hold of easily, that is roses, lilies, alstromeria, etc. So I didn’t plant roses in the first year. Well, only a couple anyway.

The whole of my first year of growing I was asked for roses. When I suggested that they were easily available from florists and supermarkets, faces were pulled and the response was always ‘Yes, but they aren’t proper roses’. And so, I planted roses.

What Roses offer to the Flower Farmer and Florist

Shape

When creating a bouquet or floral arrangement, there is an expectation that there will be round or focal flowers. They take up space in the bouquet, provide a focus for attention and the WOW factor. Roses do all of this and more. In temperate climates, they also do it for a long period, often blooming from May through to October, with repeated ‘flushes’ of flowers.

Colour

There is a huge colour range in roses, from white to deep burgundy and every shade in between. One of their strengths is that they provide a range of shades in each colour, so an orange rose can be anything from pale apricot through to deep chocolate. Rose breeders work continually to add new colours, such as blues, browns and greys.

Scent

It’s hard to describe the scent of a rose, and each one is different. If you offer someone a rose to look at, the first thing they do without fail is smell it, even before they look at the colour or shape. Scent is the element of the flower that has generally been lost in the effort to make roses that can travel the world, so it’s an essential requirement for locally grown roses. The strength and type of scent can vary greatly, but I haven’t ever smelled a rose that was unpleasant.

Memories

When I was a child, we had a very small suburban garden with a few rose bushes. One of my favourite pastimes was to collect rose petals and make them into ‘perfume’ by soaking them in a jar of water. It certainly didn’t smell great after a couple of hours in the sunshine, but it remains a very happy memory. Many people have good memories of roses that link them to loved ones, childhood and special occasions and these can provide motivation in seeking out locally grown roses as part of creating their own events and memories.

Movement

I’ve asked florists why they prefer the roses I grow to ones they can buy through a wholesaler and one of the things they always say (apart from the scent) is that they have movement. Roses that are grown so that they fit neatly into boxes or upright in buckets for storage and transport can be very stiff. It can be challenging to create a natural arrangement with stems that are very straight. A rose that has a curve in its stem, that has been allowed to wander or bend can suggest the whole shape of an arrangement and give the impression of movement.

Demand

It’s very common to get an enquiry from a florist that starts with ‘I’m looking for roses…’

Brides are reassured by roses, they seem to think it makes us a real flower farm! Although we also grow lots of other flowers, roses can be the start of the conversation. They are the lure that brings in repeat business. When they are a possibility, they bring other orders with them across a season from May to October. We sell most of our roses, only a few are deadheaded for confetti and if I have roses in the house it’s a very unusual day.

Profit

Roses can be a very profitable crop. Although they do take time and care to achieve good quality, they fetch a consistently good price and produce a high yield per plant. This season, we have cut over 200 stems of roses from just 80 indoor plants, selling at £1.80 each wholesale. That’s a minimum of £3600 from a crop that takes up very little space, is already in the ground, paid for many years ago and requiring minimal financial outlay from year to year.

What are they good for?

If you’re going to grow roses for sale as cut flowers, you need to think carefully about their end use and whether you’ll have a market for your carefully grown blooms:

Weddings and Events - although occasionally there will be a request for no roses, it’s very unusual. Home grown roses are often specifically requested for the bride’s bouquets, even if there are just a few, to give scent and a luxurious feel. For weddings and events the flowers need to look fabulous on the day, at their very best, so if they don’t last weeks it’s not an issue.

Special bouquets- more expensive bouquets tend to contain roses as they’re an indicator of luxury and expense. In gift bouquets for special occasions and presentations it can be lovely to add roses, but there is a dilemma as they are most beautiful when fully open and will give the wow effect, but they don’t last very long at that stage.

Funeral flowers - Funeral flowers can also be included under event/special bouquets. The association of roses with memories can give them a particular poignancy at times of loss and provide comfort to the bereaved. The scent of flowers at a difficult time can be helpful in providing a focus for thoughts.

Edible flowers - Roses are edible flowers, they are added to puddings and used as decoration and flavouring. However, flowers generally aren’t grown as foodstuff and don’t come under the same regulations as food so imported roses can be treated with a number of chemicals that aren’t safe for human consumption. There is a growing market for roses that are suitable for food use and compliant with the relevant regulation.

Dried flowers and confetti - roses dry well, keep their shape and hold their petals well. Blooms that are too open for selling can be deadheaded and used as fresh or dried petal confetti.

Less good for

Cafés and shops - If you supply flowers to commercial premises, it’s unlikely that roses will last long enough in the vase to be useful. They would have to be cut in bud to last long enough to be economic, and their change in shape and size provides challenges in creating an arrangement that remains looking good over a longer period. Cafes and shops, and particularly businesses such as hairdressers, are usually very warm and the atmosphere doesn’t lend itself to good flower life.

Market and Shop Bunches - Although some customers will love roses in a mixed bunch of flowers, they will often last a few days less than the other ‘members’ of the bouquet or bunch. If it’s clear at the outset, that may be OK, but most customers will expect their flowers to last a week or so. If I’m selling roses as bouquets or bunches I usually sell them as a ‘special’ with additional information on care and vase life.

Pick your own - When I first wrote this course I said that there’s no way I’d let members of the public cut my roses. However, in 2020, with the collapse of wedding and wholesale orders, there were roses aplenty and Cut Your Own customers were given free reign across the whole flower farm. The roses were cut and there was no issue, in fact they weren’t cut enough, I still had to go around and deadhead. Those who snipped the roses have been back in the following years for more!

Buckets of roses ready for a florist to collect